


picturesque

by Jae



Category: Sense and Sensibility - Austen
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-23
Updated: 2010-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:22:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jae/pseuds/Jae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Marianne Dashwood was born to an extraordinary fate."</p>
            </blockquote>





	picturesque

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Tieleen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tieleen/gifts).



When an object so thoroughly desired by all – almost all – is achieved, and an outcome so happily predicted regardless of grounds, is to be brought about, what woman would dare to question fate? Elinor asked herself this question many times on her approach to Delaford, and hardly could she find a rational response. But those who knew Elinor truly, and happily she was a woman who could count herself among that company, knew that there were one or two things that could disturb her inner composure regardless of rationality.

She found Marianne walking the grounds, two gardeners attending her as she spoke twenty to the dozen of her plans. "I shall have all this order quite thrown away, quite abandoned. Why, even the man's flowerbeds are regimented! But I shall soon make a change – "

"You will," Elinor said quietly, and Marianne said a word to the gardeners and ran to her over the smoothly paved path. As she grew near she pulled her bonnet over her head, with the guilty look of an errant child so that Elinor only smiled, and tied the ribbon for her, and kissed her.

"The Colonel has said I am to have quite my own way, when I am come to live here," Marianne said, and Elinor smiled again. "In the garden, I mean," Marianne said. Elinor was heartened to see her blush.

They walked along the grounds arm in arm, Marianne sketching her grand plans for the gardens for as long as Elinor was willing to listen. As the bounds of Elinor's patience for her sister were wide, even Marianne had almost run short of words by the time Elinor gently urged her to sit on a small bench set in a clearing. "I am glad the Colonel is not a poor man," Elinor said, "or you would surely bankrupt him in pursuit of the finest garden in England, and I am afraid he would indulge you to his last penny."

"He is a kind man," Marianne said, bowing her head. Elinor reached out a hand and raised Marianne's chin.

Even from a sister so devoted, even to a sister so open-hearted, Elinor found the words hard to say. But she had kept her own counsel once before with Marianne, and she had lived to regret it bitterly, and had events ended as it once seemed they must, she would have regretted it more bitterly still. The words came slowly and with difficulty but Elinor would not make the same mistake twice, not with Marianne.

"Marianne," she said, closing her eyes, "Marianne, do you love him?"

When she opened her eyes Marianne was watching her with a grave calm that she had never had before her illness. "He is a kind man," Marianne said again. "He is a kind man, and a good one. I had not thought, once, that such men were so rare."

"He is both those things," Elinor said, "but you have not answered my question."

Marianne stood and walked to the edge of the little clearing, looking down over the wide vista before them. Then she turned to face Elinor. "He is a good man," she said, "and a strong one, and he has sworn to love me and protect me all the days of my life. He will strive to make me happy, and I – it seems that I may make him happy without even striving. What more can a woman ask?"

Elinor rose and went to her. "Is this my wild sister?" she asked.

"It has been some time," Marianne said, "since I have been so wild."

Elinor said, "I am sorry to see it so."

"You would not have said so once," Marianne said, but before Elinor could answer her Marianne held up her hand. She walked back to the little bench and sat, spreading her skirts neatly around her and beckoning to Elinor. When Elinor joined her she said, "He told me that love can grow, if carefully tended. Like a garden, with will and a gift for it, it may even bloom."

"And you have a gift for loving," Elinor said, "it is true, Marianne, it is true."

"He is a wise man," Marianne said. "And I hope to grow to be a wise woman."

"And a happy one?" Elinor said. Marianne smiled and rose again.

"Shall I show you my plans for the folly?" Marianne said as she tucked her hand in Elinor's arm and led her once more down the path.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Image source: leeds.diarystar.co.uk/images/york-gate-garden1.jpg


End file.
